Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long to find out as it was confirmed during today's Nintendo Direct presentation that the console will be coming to both Europe and North America on the same day the game launches in each region.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be available in North America on 9th June, while Europeans will get the game five days later on 14th June. The North American bundle has a suggested retail price of $219.99, there's no recommended pricing for the European version but expect it to start at around £190/€220.

Those who buy the bundle will find the game pre-installed on the special edition 3DS XL. Nintendo are pushing people towards the downloadable version so players will always have it on the system to enjoy whenever they feel like it.

Will you be picking up the special bundle? Let us know what you think to it in the comments section below.

This, along with the Luigi system coming out in Japan, looks like a design you would see on a diaper or children's hospital wallpaper. Not a great follow up to the Pikachu 3DS XL, which looked like a Happy Meal pack-in.

In America, our choice of colors for the 3DS XL is:Baby Boy BlueRosy Ribbon RedPretty Prissy PinkYouthful Yippee YellowAnd I believe I will call this one "Silly Saccharine Sprinkles."

It seems to me that the XL was designed for adults. It's a bigger system with bigger screens and better battery life. So, why Nintendo of America insists on selling a system designed to appeal mostly to adults only in colors designed to appeal mostly to children is beyond me. I have nothing against colorful electronics (the more color options, the better), nor do I have anything against anyone who actually likes these colorful options. But you should always start with a standard color option (Silver, Black, White) and work your way out from there. We've had the XL for almost eight months now, and we still don't have a standard color option. Europe, Japan, and Australia all have both the Silver / Black one and the All-Black one (even South Korea has the Silver / Black system). As far as I'm concerned, this is completely unacceptable. I've e-mailed Nintendo about this twice now, and I would urge anyone who agrees to do the same.

Yeah. I can't complain if JPN gets specials but EU and NA should have similar packages. EU was ahead on the Pikachu edition, they also got the MH3U bundle. To make matters worse, I cant even get a Nintendo console on Amazon! I just don't understand what's up with NOA.

@jrpacman All the unique data from both systems is merged into one account. So if you buy this and do a system transfer from your old 3DS to this one, AC:NL will just show up in the eShop available for download, along with all of your other games.

@rdenton85 yes there is...it's called the system transfer...i've done many before and trust me the two systems eShop data merges on the target system so that you have all of your games. I've done this with an ambassador system to another 3DS before.

Fortunately I already bough the Pikachu yellow 3DS XL.Too bad that the Animal Crossing special edition 3DS XL doesn't have any of the cute characters of the series on it. This design looks more like a Christmas edition, not an Animal Crossing edition.